Madam Speaker, I speak for the women and men who serve as members of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment from Garrison Petawawa, located in the heart of the beautiful Upper Ottawa Valley. Canadians can be proud of their efforts in the international war against terrorism.
All life is precious.
To the troops and their families who are watching these proceedings, they should have no doubt that, even if the government does not, I have their backs.
My question was to the Minister of National Defence over the controversial decision by the Liberal government to withdraw our CF-18 fighter jets from the bombing mission against ISIL. The minister referred to this decision as a difference of opinion. This is more than a difference of opinion.
This is not the first time a Liberal government has made a politically expedient decision on the backs of serving women and men in the Canadian Armed Forces. The decision by a Liberal government to cancel the Sea King helicopter replacement contract cost money and lives. In addition to being on the hook for over half a billion dollars in cancellation fees, Canada ended up purchasing an inferior commercialized version of the same helicopter with no industrial benefits to Canada. Those benefits would have come to Canada if the Liberal government had not interfered or cancelled the military procurement.
Now it appears history is about to repeat itself once again with the decision to purchase an obsolete fighter jet to replace the jets the government refuses to allow to protect our soldiers on the ground in the international war against terrorism.
Considering the procurement process to replace Canada's fighter jets was started by a previous Liberal government and that it has been substituted for a secretive process explains the recorded surge in lobbying activity in Ottawa. It also confirms that for the Liberal government, partisan politics trumps the lives of our soldiers.
In the case of the helicopters, the decision by the Liberal government to send Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan lacking proper air support cost lives. Without strategic airlift provided by the medium lift helicopters that would have been purchased by a Conservative government, Canadian soldiers died on the bomb-laden roads of Afghanistan on a mission they never should have been sent on without the right equipment. If air support was necessary for the soldiers who were deployed by our Conservative government, then more air support, not less, would be required for more soldiers who are sent into combat.
The government has publicly stated that somehow the lack of air support is compensated by placing more soldiers on the ground, a position that strategically makes no sense. Worse, it appears that not only has the Liberal government pursued a policy of placing more soldiers at greater risk by not providing air support, it has decided to allow for the publishing of greater details about the mission itself. Those additional published details not only put our soldiers at risk overseas, they increased the risk to the families of serving soldiers here in Canada. Military families were horrified last week to read for the first time details in the press that would not have been disclosed by our Conservative government, nor should they be. We understood that the bad guys can read just as well as Canadians.
In Canada the threat is real.
We honour the recent memory of Canadian soldiers who were murdered here on Canadian soil, including within the sight of Parliament Hill, by individuals claiming to commit their acts of terror in the name of international terrorism.